A message I needed.

As I have been struggling with all the things in life that has been thrown at me lately I felt like I took a step back in time and started wondering If I am good enough to do everything, or even a good enough person to do everything that I have been asked to do. I really knocks you down a step everytime you ask yourself that, and then to have some other people make suggestions that maybe your the type of person you want to be it just seems to make you really feel like junk. Of course then I start reminding myself of that little picture I received in primary of a little kid and the saying "I Know I'm Special, Cause God Don't Make No Junk!" what was funny was that this time when I was reminding myself of that I had a message pop up from Mormon Messages for Youth. I had joined them on facebook for Ben and it seemed to just be the message I needed. So here is that message to share because it is not just for youth, but for us all. Do you know your True Identity?

Charity

As I have been rushing around today trying to get all my duties done as a mother, and wife but also as a RS secretary I didn't have much time to get much else done, let along think about what more could I be doing. Then a few things happened to me today that reminded me that no matter what we need to stop and think of others even if we are busy because we will be blessed. I met a new friend today because I stopped to say hi to a new face at church. I made a stop at another members house on the way home to drop off the latest (yet still incorrect, ugh) phone list and found out she had been waiting for someone to notice her. As I have also struggled with many of my own issues through out the past few weeks I realized I have been really falling behind in taking that moment for others. Sometimes the smallest gesture can make someones day better. Here is a little message that reminds us how simple helping someone else live their dream can make us all feel a little happier and make our life a little better.

My Day Yesterday

I had one of those nights, again. You know the ones where you can't get to sleep until 1 am only to be awake again at 2:30 in the morning and then not back to sleep until 6:30am (after I got all the people doing papers out of the house) only to have to wake up again at 7am to get kids off to school. It has been becoming a really bad habbit my body has gotten into lately, even without the help of little ones. I am sure it is not good for my health but until I have kids who do completely sleep through the night I don't feel comfortable taking pills to sleep. I do have some that knock me out to help with my tension headaches but I don't wake-up for anything and in the morning I am groggy and can't seem to get even my eyes to open. And yes that is on the weakest dose of these things. So there they sit on the top of my fridge. Waiting to be used.
 Anyways, I took the time yesterday to try and see what was really wrong with 2 things, my camera and one of my laptops computers.

So it appears that the stinking error code I am getting in my camera, Error 99 is a generic "Gee I don't know what wrong with me, mommy I think my tummy might hurt but maybe my head is hot" type of code. So I went through and did a run of tests that I found on line and a few people I have talked to suggested. First thing I did was clean the lens connections to see if that would fix it. The metal looks brighter, but still get the stinking code. Ok whats next... check the memory. They have this huge to do for checking the internal memory and resetting it and all and my first thought was "I am way to stinking tired to do any of this" So what I did do was check the memory card I was using. So I set my camera to be able to take a picture without the card (the pictures won't stay without one because they do not get written to the internal memory like you can do with a point and shoot) and guess what.. IT WORKS!!! Now the story behind the stinking memory card is that it is not the original one I bought to go with my camera. It is one that I had to run out last minute and buy before Ben and Mike left for Vancouver. I had left mine in one of the computers forgetting it was there as it died while I was getting stuff off of it. It headed over to my friend Chris' house to be repaired and the card never made it back... I keep forgetting to ask him about it, but I went and bought a cheaper card last minute from shoppers (cheap card.. not cheaper price.. really paid a lot for the conveniece of them being open until midnight) It wasn't the best but I thought it should be ok. I guess I was WRONG!! Now I have since then put in a different card. With this one I can take pictures but have to take out and put back in the card if the camera sits too long because it is a memory card that is under recal.. The lexar ones. BUT I can take a few pictures and so I took the ones of the boys papers waiting to be taken in, sorted and delivered. I checked out the sunrise over my street. I then chatted with one of my neighbors and then headed back into the house to wake up the guys. Here are the pics I took of the sunrise.

The next thing I did was try the dang laptop that is giving me more problems after just being fixed. I finally got this message instead of just a running diagnose screen. If anyone knows what to do for this please let me know as I don't want to ask Chris for more help while he is in classes. His being able to study comes first as they are intense classes. He is studing to become a social worker. I think that is a hard and amazing job. So until he is done those this computer will sit, or like I said if anyone knows and can tell me how to do it, I would be grateful.

Later that day the kids had their first practice for Track and Field at the school. Now normally I haven't gone to these as I still have the little ones at home and it is hard to keep them occupied while helping out the teachers. BUT Sam decided he wanted to try going out for the team so they asked me to please come help out. My sister Krysti and Her other half Darryl came with me to the field and watched the little ones while I watched Sam doing his stuff. He is trying out for the Long Jump, the Triple Jump, and The 100 meter dash. I know he will do well with the dash, the long jump he only did 2 runs at so we are going to practice at the stadium field (hopefully everyday he says). I think if Sam can manage doing this "team" yet individual sport well and enjoy himself that next year he will be better when it comes to going on the ski trips and such. Anyways here are a couple of the pictures I grabbed while I was there.  I call the first one one Ben's impression of the Peanuts Charaters Dancing moves. It was an accidental picture I was trying to get him on the up jump for his long jump but caught the way down and I LOVE it!! The other is Sam getting ready to run for his jump.

And last but not least here is my quick break that I took between getting ready for meetings with RS, Making dinner, cleaning the house, ect.... I went outside and saw Cloe like only my little princess can do, having a mini tempure tantrum in her swing because she doesn't want out, but she does not want to be swinging anymore either. Oh how I love this little girl. And Matty asked me to take a picture of him playing soccer so I took the last one on the page. How was your day yesterday?

I Heart Faces Week 19, "Celebrating Mothers"

I really wanted, just because of the theme this week, to take a great photo to share. However since my camera is on the outs I went looking through past photos and found this one of Cloe practicing her "Mommy Hugs" on her cousin Emmae. Claudia says Mommy hugs make everything better. She has really grown to love sharing those hugs and now kisses with everyone. So here is to the future Mom my little Sweet Heart is growing up to be.

So the past few weeks have been very tough and eventful over here for us. There has been a lot going on. Most things are not stuff that I can at the moment mention here, maybe someday I will be able to share it all but until then just know that we love all of our family and friends even if we haven't called or written in a while.

So first things first.. the first picture and the next one are the last ones I have taken with my camera until I put it down as I keep getting this Error 99 message on it and I need to get it checked out before I do anything else with it. If someone who reads this has some suggestions I am open to them.

Also during the past 2 weeks Ben had the opportunity to head down to Vancouver and be a part of the the TYC conference and performance that happened down there at the beginning of the month. It was a great experience but that was when the error message on my camera started so Mike was unable to take many pictures. Here are the few He did get of the temple and Ben before the troubles began. I was sad and jealous that Mike went and not myself, but so glad that these two that fight so much because they are so much alike, could have such a wonderful time together.

Then right after Ben came back we had to get ready and attend this years relay races. It was nice that Jordan could join the team too this year. We discussed it with Sam but felt that maybe next year after he continues to have such great success this year he can join in with relays... He might be able to do track and field this year though with all his great day :) anyways here are a few shots from that day. It was a challenge to get them with my camera acting up, but we did get something. Tami recorded some video of them running and I am hoping to get those from her to share here too.

And last but not least for this post I will share with you one of my other frustrations and problems these past few weeks and that is all of my computers and equipment started failing. I am feeling so guilt ridden that because of these problems I was not able to get out May's newsletter, or print off the invitations to our April's activity, and many other things and problems that came out of these various events. I have had 1 computer die completely because it was dropped too many times. Then the other 2 have had their hard drives go. The worst part of that is that I couldn't afford my external hard drive yet and so I lost many files and pictures. I have been crying off and on about those losses since this happened. I have been trying through everything else going on to rebuild my templates for the newsletters and redo all my lost info files I needed for RS. Here's a picture I took of the 2 culprits before the camera went to Vancouver and decided it would join in the break down party.

 So that is a few of the reasons for my absence from the blog this past little while and if I am behind on some things or phone calls, or letters, or pictures for you please forgive.. I will eventually get my life back to what we consider normal ;)

A Special Mothers Day Message for Us ALL!

A little while back My cousin Erica introduced me to the blog og this amzing woman who has inspired me and helped me remember that there is always something good to be found no matter how hard the trials maybe. Her name is Stephanie Nielson and you can check out her Blog here:

As you know I am also a big fan of Mormon messages as they give me an up lift when things start to make me feel a little down. Well these two amazing inspirations have joined together to make a wonderful video that I think is just perfect for this Mothers Day.

Please enjoy and know that you are special! This day is to honor all the amazing ladies in this world! Whether you are a Mom of 1 or 12 or more kids, You have no kids of your own but you take care of other children and people around you, even if you have 1 or more little furbabies (or non fur as the case maybe) at home that are just as special, You are a Special spirit brought forth in this world, at this time, and we all would not be the same without you here.